Third lawsuit joins into complaints about iPhone 3G speeds, bugs
Now seemingly popping out of the woodwork, a spate of lawsuits accusing Apple and AT&T of misleading over iPhone 3G's data speeds have been joined by a New Jersey class action filing that also questions app reliability.
The 32-page complaint by state resident Eulardi Tanseco was filed the same day as a San Diego-based suit with similar ambitions.
Like that plaintiff, Tanseco asserts that he and many other buyers were deceived into buying an iPhone 3G expecting the "twice as fast" Internet performance advertised by Apple and AT&T, only to find himself rarely connecting to the 3G network and often experiencing service drops. Many of these followed the same pseudo-random behavior that occurs no matter how strong AT&T's 3G coverage might be.
"Unfortunately, even when [he] was able to connect via the 3G protocol... even while remaining in the same physical location, [his] call or data transmission was dropped from the 3G protocol to the much slower EDGE protocol," the lawsuit explains.
Relying in part on "online blogs'" reports on the drops as proof, Tanseco and his legal team believe Apple and AT&T violated New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act, its Uniform Commercial Code and the terms of its contract by advertising service they at some point knew they couldn't maintain.
He also accuses Apple in particular of failing to disclose the existence of numerous "defective" third-party apps on the App Store, many of which refuse to load, and of a less frequent problem where music purchased from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on the iPhone itself would refuse to play until he first synced it back to the iPhone's host computer, deleted it from the phone, and then resynchronized to copy it back.
Tanseco also doesn't believe Apple statements that the recent iPhone 2.0.2 update would resolve 3G issues and other flaws, insisting that the new firmware has had no effect on his experience.
The plaintiff demands that Apple and AT&T pay both compensation and punitive damages in addition to halting its allegedly misleading marketing practices. Since as many as three million iPhone 3G devices have been sold since July, according to the claims, the suit necessitates a class action status to address problems by a group that would be far too large to satisfy one-by-one.
Apple in its historical form has declined to comment on the lawsuit and has so far only made unofficial pledges to fix both the connection and software bugs in a more permanent fashion with a September iPhone update.
It's clear that Tanseco and his lawyers are aware of the mounting pressure on Apple to resolve its problems, however: as part of the New Jersey filing, the party acknowledges the existence of the original Alabama lawsuit from Jessica Smith that first drew legal attention to the newer iPhone's performance problems.
The 32-page complaint by state resident Eulardi Tanseco was filed the same day as a San Diego-based suit with similar ambitions.
Like that plaintiff, Tanseco asserts that he and many other buyers were deceived into buying an iPhone 3G expecting the "twice as fast" Internet performance advertised by Apple and AT&T, only to find himself rarely connecting to the 3G network and often experiencing service drops. Many of these followed the same pseudo-random behavior that occurs no matter how strong AT&T's 3G coverage might be.
"Unfortunately, even when [he] was able to connect via the 3G protocol... even while remaining in the same physical location, [his] call or data transmission was dropped from the 3G protocol to the much slower EDGE protocol," the lawsuit explains.
Relying in part on "online blogs'" reports on the drops as proof, Tanseco and his legal team believe Apple and AT&T violated New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act, its Uniform Commercial Code and the terms of its contract by advertising service they at some point knew they couldn't maintain.
He also accuses Apple in particular of failing to disclose the existence of numerous "defective" third-party apps on the App Store, many of which refuse to load, and of a less frequent problem where music purchased from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on the iPhone itself would refuse to play until he first synced it back to the iPhone's host computer, deleted it from the phone, and then resynchronized to copy it back.
Tanseco also doesn't believe Apple statements that the recent iPhone 2.0.2 update would resolve 3G issues and other flaws, insisting that the new firmware has had no effect on his experience.
The plaintiff demands that Apple and AT&T pay both compensation and punitive damages in addition to halting its allegedly misleading marketing practices. Since as many as three million iPhone 3G devices have been sold since July, according to the claims, the suit necessitates a class action status to address problems by a group that would be far too large to satisfy one-by-one.
Apple in its historical form has declined to comment on the lawsuit and has so far only made unofficial pledges to fix both the connection and software bugs in a more permanent fashion with a September iPhone update.
It's clear that Tanseco and his lawyers are aware of the mounting pressure on Apple to resolve its problems, however: as part of the New Jersey filing, the party acknowledges the existence of the original Alabama lawsuit from Jessica Smith that first drew legal attention to the newer iPhone's performance problems.
Comments
What ever happened to the days when you didn't like something, you just returned it and went on with your life?
What ever happened to the days when you didn't like something, you just returned it and went on with your life?
Hear! Hear!
The irony is that if the problems were that serious, and everyone returned their iPhones instead of filing lawsuits, Apple/AT&T would doubtlessly fix the problems a hell of a lot faster.
Apple and AT&T have been fixing issues as they come up.
They Apple ad says that it's twice as fast as Edge which it is.
The plaintiffs in these suites are gold diggers just out to make a buck. They most they should get is their money back. They have no right to get more than that. They have suffered no harm.
The Apple ad says that it's twice as fast as Edge which it is.
At least twice as fst on average. Apple is the only cellphone seller that I know of that isn't specing out the 3G radios are being 7.2Mbps.
Whatever happened to penalizing attorneys and plaintiffs for filing frivolous lawsuits?
Apple is coming out with a new 64-bit app for Snow Leopard called iKarma to deal with this very issue. Due to the extent of the problem (think fractal theory), they decided to use 64-bit so they'd have enough processing power to handle the job!
Relying in part on "online blogs'" reports on the drops as proof, Tanseco and his legal team believe...
I have a megawatt handheld cold fusion reactor.
Relying in part on "online blogs'" reports on the drops as proof
Now there is a proper expert witness if I have ever seen one :-)
Why is it in America we for some reason think we are ENTITLED to happiness and perfection?
If you don't like the damn thing-return it-good Gawd, like a stack of Ben Franklins is really going to solve anything? Make it faster?
And the fact is, most of these class action suits, the "class" gets like $12.95 while the legal counsel gets 7 or 8 digit compensation.
And, everyone pays more so some blood sucking ambulance chasers can live in Cape Cod.
The plaintiff demands that Apple and AT&T pay both compensation and punitive damages
Let me translate this...it's New Jersey lego-shakedown-speak that really means:
"The plaintiff demands that Apple and AT&T pay both compensation and punitive damages to a few lawyers and iPhone users get 2 cents off their next purchase of any Apple product."
Good.
Bad!
OK, your turn.
Am not happy with apple getting sue but am also from NJ and i also live in a good 3G coverage area and although my phone has good signal, i haven't been able to use 3G at all, but that doesn't mean AT&T has stop billing me for it. Nice phone and all but if the next update doesn't fix the problem, it will be sold on ebay to cover all the ETFs and going back to verizon, and ohh why did i sell my first gen??? O well
I'm glad I didn't sell my 1st Gen phone because the 3G is going back & I'm out $30 bucks for the restocking fee. Glad to be rid of it and back to 1.1.4 that was stable.
I don't agree with the lawsuit but the phone it isn't worth the trouble & having GPS with no turn by turn diections is a joke.
Personally I get very good transfer rates even at times when I'm on edge. Oh by the way my mind is developed a bit more than a boy from Jersey so I understand things like coverage, distance from towers, fallback and other realities of RF communications.
Frankly I think these people are idiots. It be like me complaining about my old phone when it was out of range of a tower. Stuff happens and sometimes you just end up on a congested network.
Dave
It is always nice to see lawyers engaged in meaningful work.
What ever happened to the days when you didn't like something, you just returned it and went on with your life?
Today I did an about-face and have decided I completely support these lawsuits. The 3G connectivity from my iPhone is unacceptable. I have a consistent 5 bars of 3G in my office at work yet the 3G data rate is more often zero (cannot connect to anything) than it is connected. It's random, it's annoying, and it's unacceptable.
You ask why I don't return the phone. Because my return period has passed--I cannot do so. I'm locked in now. Unless you're willing to pay out the remainder of my AT&T contract for the next 22 months and give me $400 back for my iPhone, shut up. Seriously--shut up. I'm having real 3G problems and you making fun of the situation is making it worse not better. Be constructive or keep your wisecracks to yourself.